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The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

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Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#11

Post by prakash »

trekker7 wrote: post #10

Over the last few months, one common trend I've seen on Hacker News is that there are a lot of articles about characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, or where to live if you want to succeed, or the ideas/implementation debate, and so on. I think a lot of people (including me) are constantly trying to reassure themselves that they have what it takes to succeed, by double-checking if their own attributes are conta…

Well said. 10 different entrepreneurs, will tell you 10 different things as the #1 most important characteristic.

That article written by Tony Wright comes to mind:"Every Piece of Startup Advice is a Lie (including mine)"

http://www.tonywright.com/2008/every-piece-of-startup-advice...

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#12

Post by huhtenberg »

> In her blog today, Penelope Trunk wrote that it really isn’t possible to know if your idea for a start-up is any good. I agree with her.

I think both of them are dead wrong.

Starting a company should come after the idea is evaluated from as many angles as possible and you have a confidence that the idea is good. Based on not just a gut feeling and a dream of being a founder, but on a research, planning and a feedback.

In this light the adaptability is hardly a #1 trait, the rationality, the sensibility and the patience are.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#13

Post by adityakothadiya »

I have written extensively on this topic - What Makes Them Entrepreneurial here - http://www.adeologue.com/adeologue/what_makes_them_entrepren...

One of the traits I have mentioned is this adaptability attribute - http://www.adeologue.com/adeologue/2007/07/what-makes-them.h...

I am still interviewing few successful entrepreneurs and understanding what made them entrepreneurial. It's very important to learn these traits and develop those.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#14

Post by alex_c »

I have researched this extensively through blog posts and articles posted here over the last year, and I have come to the conclusion that the #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur is the ability to have multiple, unrelated, and sometimes conflicting #1 most important personality traits.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#16

Post by michael_dorfman »

onlinesu wrote: post #2

I think that the most important trait is perseverance. You may be willing to change directions and adapt, but if you quit, you're done.

+1 for Perseverence. Definitely a necessary trait, more important than any other that comes to mind.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#17

Post by dennykmiu »

Having been a struggling entrepreneur for the last fifteen years and having my share of spectacular failures and some occasional modest successes, I have learned to live by one simple rule, Conservation of Single Malt Scotch, which has served me well ... "If I don't drink too much on the way up, I don't need to drink too much on the way down."

Like many who have been entrepreneurs, I have learned quickly that entrepreneurship is the great equalizer. Everyone has an equal chance to success and equal chance to failure, irrespective of their age, education, family wealth and of course, cultural background and race.

In fact, the more that people tells us that it cannot be done or that it should not be done, it seems that the more enjoyable is the journey.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#18

Post by Prrometheus »

trekker7 wrote: post #10

Over the last few months, one common trend I've seen on Hacker News is that there are a lot of articles about characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, or where to live if you want to succeed, or the ideas/implementation debate, and so on. I think a lot of people (including me) are constantly trying to reassure themselves that they have what it takes to succeed, by double-checking if their own attributes are conta…

And don't forget survivor bias! For any given "success trait", you can probably find more failed founders with it than successful founders. We just don't read about it.

See: Fooled by Randomness, one of my favorite books.

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#19

Post by b20a61u31 »

trekker7 wrote: post #10

Over the last few months, one common trend I've seen on Hacker News is that there are a lot of articles about characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, or where to live if you want to succeed, or the ideas/implementation debate, and so on. I think a lot of people (including me) are constantly trying to reassure themselves that they have what it takes to succeed, by double-checking if their own attributes are conta…

I think success as an entrepreneur has to do with the number of failures one encounters, because the more you fail the more you learn about the user world. :)

Re: The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur

#20

Post by stcredzero »

(If you think what's below is off topic, then make sure you've read the article and be sure to read all of the comment.)

The Clancy Brothers are best known as a seminal Irish singing group, but they started out as a troupe of actors that went to New York to become famous by putting on works of Shakespeare. The folk music craze was in full force, and they noticed that they were actually making more money renting out their venue to folkies than they were making by putting on shows, so they decided to get into the act themselves. They pretty were much like other folks who emulated the Weavers and other popular acts of the day, but since they happened to be Irish, the songs they knew were Irish traditional songs, and so they stood out and became international stars.

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